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Nicholas Lovell
Home   >   Self-Publishing   >   Sales   >   Turns out the Nintendo DS isn’t the place to sell Mature titles. Surely not?

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Turns out the Nintendo DS isn’t the place to sell Mature titles. Surely not?

By on April 20, 2009

The latest NPD data shows disappointing data for Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars on Nintendo DS.

It sold a “pathetic” 89,000 and “bombed”, according to Variety.

Game Platform US Installed  Unit  Penetration
  base (m)* sales** rate (%)
GTA: Chinatown Wars Nintendo DS 26.3 89,000 0.3%
Grand Theft Auto IV Xbox360/PS3 14.4 2,850,000 19.8%
GTA IV: The Lost and Damned Xbox360 DLC 13.5 1,000,000 7.4%
GTA: Vice City Stories PSP n/a 108,000                                 –  
GTA: Liberty City Stories PSP n/a 158,000                                 –  
* at time of release        
** at launch        
Source: Variety        

The main conclusion: that the DS is not an ideal platform for mature content.

Was this not a generally known fact?

About Nicholas Lovell

Nicholas is the founder of Gamesbrief, a blog dedicated to the business of games. It aims to be informative, authoritative and above all helpful to developers grappling with business strategy. He is the author of a growing list of books about making money in the games industry and other digital media, including How to Publish a Game and Design Rules for Free-to-Play Games, and Penguin-published title The Curve: thecurveonline.com